Surge in student attacks: A degree of safety key deciding factor for students heading to US
higher studies this year are choosing colleges based on the perceived safety of the location amid a recent surge in attacks on Indian students in the US, admission consultants said. Besides institutes and courses, parents who plan to send their ward to the US are asking questions such as which states are safe and which areas have high crime rates even as admission results for the 2024 batch have started coming in from US universities, they told ET. Some parents with daughters are even having second thoughts about the US, said Adarsh Khandelwal, CEO and founder of Collegify.
There is widespread concern particularly among parents of students going for undergraduate studies as many of them would be staying away from home for the first time, consultants said.
Caution is in the air amid reports of violent incidents involving Indian students, including some fatal ones, in places like Chicago, Boston, and Indiana, among others.
Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi even issued a video message last week urging Indian students heading to or already in the US to prioritise their safety.
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“Admission results are coming out right now and what we are seeing is that safety is an overriding concern in 2024,” Khandelwal said.
US universities can now validate TOEFL scores through Indian study-abroad partners
Karan Gupta, founder of study abroad career consultancy Karan Gupta Consulting, said that while there is no impact on the number of applications to
